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Gaethje had originally been tipped to face Ilia Topuria in a title unification blockbuster, but the undefeated Spaniard has long had his sights set on an even bigger prize \u2013 a superfight with Makhachev.<\/p>\n
The former lightweight champ vacated the belt last year to chase history, moving up to welterweight and successfully capturing a second UFC title from Aussie Jack Della Maddalena.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, Topuria unloaded on Makhachev in a blunt online post, suggesting the Dagestani faked an injury to avoid fighting him. <\/p>\n
LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 09: Ilia Topuria steps on the scale for the ceremonial weigh-in during the weigh-in for UFC 282Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again, Islam comes up with an excuse,\u201d Topuria wrote on X. \u201cThis time, it\u2019s an injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dana White revealed at the post-fight press conference for UFC 326 that Makhachev had indeed initially been considered to compete on the White House card \u2013 but a hand injury ultimately ruled him out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen [the UFC] finally told me I would be on the White House card, they mentioned Islam and I didn\u2019t hesitate for a second to accept the fight,\u201d Topuria continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the fight hadn\u2019t been officially confirmed yet, the White House card was going to be announced the next day. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when I woke, I found out that Islam had gotten injured. And then Justin Gaethje appeared.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again, someone else who will pay for Islam\u2019s escape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topuria has made it very clear he wants a third UFC title \u2013 but first he\u2019s ready to make a serious statement against Gaethje.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustin, see you at the White House,\u201d Topuria wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not someone who humiliates people. It will be quick. When you wake up, everything will already be over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makhachev didn\u2019t take long to fire back at Ilia Topuria.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both know who chickened out here,\u201d Makhachev wrote on X. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can cover your cowardice with nasty tweets, but don\u2019t worry, one day you will get what you asked for! And your fat ass manager don\u2019t have to ask for billions to fight me, we\u2019ll do it for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
A showdown between Makhachev and Topuria \u2013 the sport\u2019s top two pound-for-pound stars \u2013 is widely viewed as the biggest fight the UFC could stage in 2026.<\/p>\n
Featherweight kingpin Alev Volkanovski weighed in on the White House card announcement on Wednesday morning, saying he\u2019d also heard whispers that Topuria was originally lined up to fight Makhachev.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut how could you be mad with Ilia versus Gaethje?\u201d he said on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
\u201cGaethje is interim champ. Would it have been crazier seeing that two years ago? Probably\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tough one for Gaethje.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volkanovski added that if Topuria navigates through the likes of Gaethje, Arman Tsarukyan, and Makhachev, he could go down as one of the greatest ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing about Illia is that Ilia wants that [the hardest possible fights],\u201d Volkanovski said. <\/p>\n
White House UFC card confirmed | 02:45<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants Islam. He wants to prove himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cGaethje is still an exciting fight, though, you know that someone is getting knocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria has called out Islam Makhachev for dodging a potential superfight, sparking a fiery social media feud…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-532268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}